Francis Stuart - Literary Career

Literary Career

After independence, Stuart participated in the literary life of Dublin and wrote poetry and novels. His novels were successful and his writing was publicly supported by Yeats. Yeats, however, seemed to have had mixed feelings for Stuart who was, after all, married to a woman he regarded almost as a daughter and, even, as a possible wife. In his poem "Why should not Old Men be Mad?" (1936) in which he lists what he regards as provocations to rage he has witnessed, he claims he has seen

"A girl that knew all Dante once

Live to bear children to a dunce"

The first of these lines is accepted as referring to Iseult and the second to Stuart (Elborn 1990).

Stuart and Iseult had three children, a daughter Dolores who died three months old, a son Ian and a daughter Katherine. Ian Stuart went on to become an artist and was married for a time to the sculptor Imogen Stuart and later to the Berlin-trained artist and jewelry designer Anna Stuart who he first met in 1970. They gave Francis Stuart three grandchildren; food entrepreneur Laragh, photographer Suki and sculptress Sophia. Francis Stuart's time with with Iseult may not have been an entirely happy time; from the accounts given in his apparently autobiographical novels, both he and his wife struggled with personal demons and their internal anguish poisoned their marriage.